“A Rose for Emily”: The Dichotomy of a Rose

"A Rose for Emily": The Dichotomy of a Rose

By Justine Schweizer

Abstract As one of the most prominent figures of Southern literature, William Faulkner is known for his highly accurate and critical depictions of the South, most notably during its transition from the plantation era to the industrial age. His work presents all aspects of the changing South and its colourful cast of characters. Perhaps none are as emblematic and ambiguous as that of A Rose for Emily`s eponymous character, Emily Grierson. Through his innovative use of narration and his portrayal of her, Faulkner represents the transitioning South as it moves from one era to the next, with all the crises and complexities it entails. Written in the prime of the feminist movement, A Rose for Emily portrays a character caught between identities: the masculine and the feminine, the past and the present, the passive and the active. Going from subject to object and back again throughout the narrative, Miss Emily Grierson is the embodiment of the rose her creator symbolically gifts her. She is the petals of the flower, supple and soft, and the thorns of the stem, harsh and unyielding.

1. Introduction

A Rose for Emily is one of William Faulkner`s most studied works. Written in

1930, the short story follows the downfall of Miss Emily Grierson, from her early

womanhood to her eventual death. Like much of Faulkner`s work, the action takes place

in the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Faulkner was clearly fascinated with the old American South and its slow decay

following the Revolutionary War, to be replaced by an unfamiliar New South (Roberts

234). While this theme, and many other recurring aspects of Faulkner`s writing, such as

the importance and use of time, can be found in A Rose for Emily, a more sparingly

studied facet of the short story lies in the title and its relation to the eponymous character.

Why does Faulkner give` a rose to Emily? And why does he associate her to that

particular flower? Through a close reading of the text, a postmodern, feminist and

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psychoanalytic analysis of the text and its characters, we will see that the rose, with its soft petals and sharp thorns, is in fact emblematic of Emily and defines her character throughout the story.

2. William Faulkner and the Confederate Woman: a tale of ambiguity

William Faulkner (1897-1962) was born and lived most of his life in Mississippi. His life was therefore embedded in the South and he was greatly influenced by his heritage and everything it entailed. While the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was long over by the time he was born, Faulkner was fascinated by the changes that occurred in the South between the period preceding it and the evolution in ideology and society that followed it. This is illustrated in much of his work, most of which is set in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha. As in A Rose for Emily, Faulkner`s work often portrays the changing of the guard between the highly hierarchical society of the old South, based on property and status, race and slavery, and the society of the New South (Roberts 234), which was formed during and after the industrial revolution, and left behind ideas of aristocracy for gentrification. One hallmark of this transition is the character which has been defined as the Confederate Woman (233). She is an essential element in many of Faulkner`s stories as he reimagined her to embody a figure in crisis (234) and represent the wreck of a society through fluid gender and race roles (234). As Roberts defines her, [t]he Confederate Woman comes from women taking on traditionally masculine roles but with no sacrifice of what the culture identifies as essential white femininity (235). Faulkner uses the Confederate Woman (233) in stories such as The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom and The Unvanquished. In the latter, Rosa Millard becomes

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master, wielder of masculine` ownership of children and slaves (238) while maintaining her ladyhood (238). Faulkner is therefore no stranger to portraying ambiguous female characters, and this holds true for Miss Emily Grierson in A Rose for Emily. Throughout the short story, her character is portrayed alternately as masculine and feminine, strong and weak, young and old.

The Confederate Woman usually describes a female character living during the American Revolutionary War. As in The Unvanquished, she takes on a leading, masculine role in society during the war to compensate for the men`s departure, while retaining her feminine attributes such as piety and care. Miss Grierson`s story is clearly set after the War of Independence, as evidenced by the mention of the year 1894 (Faulkner 1), and yet Faulkner chooses to represent her as a Confederate Woman. While Emily does not experience the Revolutionary War, she embodies the last vestiges of the Old South. Her presence in a town undergoing gentrification and moving on from the values her family stands for bridges the gap between two worlds, the plantation era and the post-war and industrial revolution age. In addition, her father`s death, like the departure of soldiers during wartime, forces her to take charge of her own destiny. She becomes her own master and the owner of a slave and a house thereby embodying a highly masculine role. However, this new role and newfound power does not erase her femininity. She gives lessons in china-painting (Faulkner 6) and is seemingly courted by a foreman named Homer Barron (4) whom she prepares to marry. Therefore, as she combines masculine and feminine roles, Miss Emily can be considered a Confederate Woman.

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Emily Grierson also embodies a figure in crisis (Roberts 234). She is shaken by the death of her father whose body she refuses to give up for several days, clinging to him in the same way she clings to antiquated ideals which have no place in the new societal order. In fact, her attachment to the body of her father and Homer Barron can be seen as a metaphor for her existential crisis. Emily lives in a time of transition, her family represents the last of the Old South and its ideals while the world around them is shifting and embracing modernity in the form of new money, paved roads and free postal delivery (Faulkner 7). Miss Grierson`s peculiar position in the town means she belongs neither to the past nor the present: she is tethered to the past by her family name, her house and her upbringing, while the world which she must navigate is in the present. In order to reconcile her identity, she first attempts to anchor herself in the past by clinging to her dead father`s body. However, she is forced to let him go and he is buried (4), thereby severing her physical link to the past. Though the house was ... left to her (3) as well as The Negro (5), neither is sufficient to tie her to the past. The house is decay[ing] (1) and no longer the monument it once was, while the Negro has no real attachment to her beyond his station. As time moves on and she grows older, Emily becomes more and more a relic in a city in evolution moving towards progress. She therefore endeavours to tie herself to this present by latching on to Homer Barron. One can only assume he refused to marry her and she must resort to murder in order to keep him in her bridal (8) chamber. Again, she keeps his body to anchor herself in the present, this time carefully avoiding suspicion so as to ensure he remains in her custody. Her efforts however, are as futile as before. Emily Grierson is too attached to the past to ever belong in the present. She refuses to let her Negro free because she clings to the

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old ideals of the plantation era where the White own and the Black belong. In addition, as old and decrepit as her house may be, she does not leave. In this way, she remains stuck in the past, not enough to belong there, yet enough to prevent her from belonging anywhere else.

In her ambiguities and her crisis, Emily Grierson embodies the Confederate Woman Faulkner so often uses in his work. She represents a multi-faceted character, weak and strong, masculine and feminine. These gender roles and the power attributed to them is an integral part of the character`s ambiguities both within itself and in relation to others.

3. Gender roles and power plays

A Rose for Emily is rife with oppositions. It seems the entire town of Jefferson is defined by these polarities which give it structure and regulate everyday life. From the black slaves owned by white proprietors to the old town being taken over by modernity, Jefferson seems to be an amalgamation of binary systems, and as many such systems do, one component dominates the other. Perhaps the most striking example of this power dichotomy is that which opposes men and women, or rather, all the men in the village to one woman, Emily Grierson.

The discourses of power discussed by postmodernists are clearly evidenced in A Rose for Emily. Indeed, the eponymous character is created by the narrative insofar as she is the subject (Butler 56) of the narrator`s discourse. She is therefore defined as the other (Butler 46) and marginalized by the townspeople who present her as a fallen

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